Mea Culpa: Films We Wished We’d Covered

At TIME we try to cover the most significant movie releases every week, but even with two critics working fulltime, we don’t always get to everything. Before 2012 draws to a close, here is a list of 10 compelling films, features and documentaries that we missed when they opened—from the tale of a backpacking couple derailed by a single misstep to the true story of a coalition that declared war on AIDS in the 1980s. Consider this a cheat sheet for the video store or your Netflix queue.